Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-11-18

/ ufll' VII IDIiueIltl, invite WDOln you
| please, ana enjoy triumph which has
| yet been achieved Ivy no sDirtualist or So
| called occult PHILOSOPHER. II is a mark of
| signal favor, and, believe me- my dear
| frend'-Paul clasped his hand warmly
mot the last-not the last-that you will
receive"
| CHAPTER IV.-SHOULD THIS HAPPEN
| Once more the two young men were sit
ting at midnightin Toms workshop, but
| their bearing toward each other was now
| changed. There was no dliIidence on the
one hand nor suspicion on the other.
| Diffidence mad changed to confidence, and
in place of suspicion was avowed eumity
on public grounds with allowed friend
ship on private grounds.
'PeOple are clamoring for more of your
c0nfounded miracles, old man." said Tom
! presently.
80 | gather. They will not be satie-
| fled. At least-well, there is one thing |
promised. If you are at all interested in
what you call miracles, you may be pres
ent tomorrow evening"
"You mean the great indian trick Yes
my guardian has invited his friends to
witness it. He says you gave him the
! paper month ago"
"He asked for "a copy of that days
Friend Of India. SO it came That is
very simple"
Perfectly simple, Quite simple what
happens every day, in fact, Nothing mi
racuous about that is there 20
"He then placed il in a safe, of which
| he alone keeps the key, and he undertook
not to show it TO anyone until the day
when the mail should bring that days
paper to London. 1t Will arrive to morrow,
and his copy can be compared with that
received in the usual way
II see But it seems rather a pity
doesn't it that he waited whole
month ~
You mean ?" Paul knew perfectly
J we'll what Tom meant, but yet he asked
| this question
"A miracle, my dear boy, in order to
! be perfectly conclusive, should leave no
| loophOle at all for doubt as to the fact
That is the whole essence of a miracle
and it is here that your Friends go bung-
ling. Now, # you produced today's
Friend Of India in open court, so to
speak, before body OF scientific men,
who might photograph it, so as to multi
! ply copies, and If you on the same dav
had the whole contents of that days
paper telegraphed from Delhi, the ques.
ton would then be, not whether the thing
had been done, bout which there could
be no doubt, but whether there was any
way of explaining it other than miracu-
lous. For instance, the Old slate trick"
"Oh but everybody knows how that is
done"
True, but the fact is that it was
done, We recognized that, and had only
to find out how it was done. How about
your miracle of tomorrow :"
Il did not say it was mine"
Your friends miracle, then. You see
they haven't complied with the first con
dition5 of miracle, that the fact itself
must be beyond doubt. My guardian says
that four weeks ago he received a COPY Of
that very days Friend Of India. Very
well, it rests on his word, not on yours AS
well, does it i'' Tom looked up curiously
as II he was trying TO get some admission.
III necessary, my word would perhaps
not be wanting" There was the least
possible absence of heartiness in the an
swer.
Quite so, II necessary. Very well, then
He says he put it in the safe. Why did
he not INSTANTLY produce the Sheet and
confound the nfdel Can't you see that
a more miraculous thing than the trans
portstion of newspaper ten thousand
miles III an hour was never even attempt
ed in the palmiest days of witchcraft and
magic Don't you know that the occult
philosophers have been asked over and
over again to do this and thas they have
always refused to do ~
You forget one thing, that if such
thing was done it might be made subser
Went to commercial purposes and an OBJ
; ject of self interest"
That is what the occult philosophers
say, 1t is only worth considering on the
suppositiou that everybody could perform
the miracle. II your friends have the Sc
cret in their CNn hands they can keep it
! and make ne performance a rare and in
terestlng event. Come, now, put to them
frankly. Let us have, for once, a miracle
, , that cannot be attacked anyhow. My
guardian deposits this precious paper in
his safe and keeps it there for a month.
lie says that nobody can get at that 1e
! except himself Rather than believe in
this mi"att, am prepared to dlsbeleve
= his --rrlIuu Come now old man,
don't sllad being frank with you. | think
you are up 10 some game which may be
anything but isn't, am sure 1t isn't, the
! old vulgar game of plumber. | rather be-
lieve you are trying by the exercise of
certain gifts and clever lodges to make
yourself great man. Very well, | have
a similar ambition about myself ou(y in
! another direction altogether. You are go
ing in for miracles. 1t isn't worth while
:; carrying on the stale old spiritualistic
/ humbug. You know that and you are
trying to strike out a new line Give Us a
real genuiner indisputable miracle, the
fact OF which cannot be denied"
e 81 am pleased 10 have your good opir-
u ion, Tom" Paul laughed, cheerfully.
\ Whatever my ambitions may be, they
= DO not work in the direction of plumber,
You shall never be able to say that of me,
= And as to what you think--"'he paused.
V ''Iom,' he said, earnestly, you were so
very frank with me at the outset ms to tell
me you thought was humbug like the
=, | rest OF them. You know, now, that | have
no Intercourse with their world OF lying
spirits. ! do not send round the hat for a
!, little collection. Yet, believe me, Tom,
10